Hacking Tutorial

[JLHack7]

I am sick of people not trying to hack themselves, so now, I haved developed a tutorial for people to learn to hack, and make their own Action Replay, Codebreaker, and Gameshark codes

It comes in 4 major sections, with the 3rd and 4th being actual PS2 Hacking

The first is the most basic, if you have absolutely no knowledge of hacking in hexidecimal whatsoever, then you should start here

the second is a little more complicated, and people who have some knowledge of hacking should try this, if the first section is too easy

The third section is quite complicated, since the first 2 sections only use halfword where as the third section uses full word (if you don't know what these terms mean, then you might want to start with section 1)

The last section requires an extensive knowledge of MIPS programming, and is not totally necessary to learn, and is very difficult (this section is basically at the level of me, KHKid1212, and Evilman)

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First section: Hexidecimal for Beginners
Required programs: VisualBoyAdvance
Required Files: Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising (European) [The US version seems to crash] {PM Me with your e-mail and I'll send you the ROM}
(and yes I have a GameBoy Advance, and I have the actual cartridge for AW2:BHR)
There is a version of VBA (Visual Boy Advance) for Mac and Linux too, so don't worry

Also, the European version that I have, seems to accept US version codes, so if you have the US Version of AW2:BHR, then you can use these codes

so anyway, lets start

(Refer to attachment: VBATut1.jpg)
1: Here's Visual Boy Advance

Now then, when we open up VBA, we see the option, "Tools"
After clicking on it we see this:
(Refer to attachment: VBATut2.jpg)

2: We see an option called "Disassemble", for PS2 Hacking, we use a program called PS2Dis, which does that very function, "Disassemble"

In this section, you will learn basic hacking in hexadecimal, via the GameBoy Advance (If you have a CodeBreaker Advance, then you can actually test these codes [if you have an Advance Wars 2 cartridge], but if you have GameShark or Pro Action Replay, you need to find a way to decrypt these codes)

So anyway, start up the ROM

(Refer to attachment: VBATut3.jpg)

3: The first screen you should see is the Language Select Screen (without the 3 obviously)

Also, if you actually want to learn how to play Advance Wars, I suggest getting the ROM for the first game, (which you can PM me for) and going through Field Training Mode (AW2:BHR doesn't have a field training mode, its built into the Campaign Mode, and we don't have time for that)

now then, click on the "Cheats" tab and select "Cheat List"

click on "CodeBreaker" and fill in the description with "M" and the code with

00009E1F 000A
1006FD98 0007

(Refer to attachment: VBATut4.jpg)
4: You will probably get an error message like this

Then put in another CodeBreaker code
call it "Unlock Stuff" and use the code

8202805A FFFF
42028040 FFFF
0000000D 0002

and then hit "OK" to continue the game

so anyway, go to Versus Mode, and select "New", and select the map "Little Island"

(Refer to attachment: VBATut5.jpg)
5: This is the faction of the character, there are 4, Orange Star, Blue Moon, Green Earth, and Yellow Comet
6: This is the CO (Commanding officer) the strengths and weaknesses of troops depend on the CO you choose (I have Sturm [Sturm is the Xemnas of Advance Wars] on the left, he's the most powerful, because he's a bada** alien, and Colin on the right, because he's the weakest [although he gets more funds and deploys troops at a much lower cost, but he's still a weak little s***]
7: This represents who is controlling each character (Advance Wars is turn based, so you can just pass the GameBoy to the next person when it's his turn) MAKE SURE THAT BOTH CHARACTERS ARE NOT SET TO Cp (Computer Player) because the computer will control that other character and will give you a LOT of trouble

Unfortunately, I have a 5 attachment limit, so in order to continue, I need someone to post here so I can make another post with the rest of the tutorial

[Ioan]

You're a saint- this'll lower spam sooooooooo much.

[EvilMan_89]

i doubt anyone will try this, ppl are too lazy

[Ioan]

Originally Posted by EvilMan_89

i doubt anyone will try this, ppl are too lazy

I'm gonna take a wack at it.

[EvilMan_89]

good luck, i hope you learn to hack

[罪]

Originally Posted by EvilMan_89

i doubt anyone will try this, ppl are too lazy

true
fillerzzzzzzz

[JLHack7]

UPDAAAAAAAATE!

Hokay so...
Continuing on

I completely forgot to mention,
go to
"Options" -> "Joypad" -> "Configure" -> "1..." to change controls
:

So once you've selected the CO's you can hit "A" (from now on I'll be refering to the controls by the button names)

and for options, you can set them like this
Fog: "Off" Weather: "Clear" Funds: "9500" (means you'll get filthy rich) set "Turn" and "Capture" to off, Power: "On" and Visuals: set it to whatever the hell you want, but I like "Type C"
and hit "A"


Hokay so you'll come to a screen like this
(refer to attachment: VBATut6.jpg)

8: This is your HQ, yours may look different depending on the CO you chose (if it gets captured, you lose, the other way to lose is if all your units are destroyed)

(refer to attachment: VBATut7.jpg)

9: These are factories, they allow you to produce ground units, like infantry, tanks, APC's, Rocket Launchers, etc

select the factories and produce 2 APCs (These APCs will be our test subjects *evil grin*)

hit "Select" and choose "End"
now it is the other CO's turn, so do the same thing (2 APCs)

now then, go to the "Cheats" tab and select "Cheat List"
select "Codebreaker" and add a code called "Unit Mod"
here's the code

First Unit Mod
32022690 00??

Second Unit Mod
3202269C 00??

Digits
(Ground Units)
01 - Infantry
02 - Mech
03 - Md Tank
05 - Tank
06 - Recon
07 - APC
08 - Neotank (new tank, only in AW2:BHR, totally unrealistic, but totally kick a**)
0A - Artillery
0B - Rockets
0E - Anti-Air
0F - Missiles
(Air Units)
10 - Fighter
11 - Bomber
13 - B Cptr
14 - T Cptr

(Naval Units, DON'T USE THESE YET!)
Edit: NVM, it doesn't screw the game up at all,

(Refer to attachment: VBATut8.jpg)

10: WTF?!?!?... that Rocket Launcher is floating on the water... (I seriously just discovered this)

15 - B Ship
16 - Cruiser
17 - Lander
18 - Sub

(wtf, repeat digits)
19 - Mech

So ya, with this code, you can make any unit (but use a tank as a base for the one you're modding, because infantry, APC's, and Recon's don't have any primary weapons, and thus no ammo for primary weapons, so the morphed unit will have no ammo, and Mech's only have 3 shots for their primary weapons [Bazooka's]) for the cost of a much cheaper unit

also, I should explain CO powers, because I shall soon find a way to mod them

(I forgot to mention, you can make screenshot video's by going to...
"Tools" -> "Record" -> "Start AVI Recording"
Select where you want to place the file, name it, and hit "Save" then select "Cinepak Codec by Radius" and put the "Compression Quality" at 100

The Cinepak Codec compresses a file to about 1/8 its normal size, my movie was 40 MBs when uncompressed, but the Cinepak Codec made it 5 MBs, [to admin in charge of upload file space] sweet huh, 40 mbs to 5 mbs

the game will run horribly slow, but the recording will come out perfectly, and I did this from my Laptop which has the Intel Core Duo processor thing [in other words, I have 2 CPUs] and it still ran slow

By the way, eventually we will be hacking Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, and you can use the AVI recording feature to make vids of your hacks!)

Anyway, here's a movie of Sturm's CO Power!

(Refer to attachment: VBATut9.avi)

(Wait while I switch to Firefox, because I can't upload video's with IE)

edit: there we go

This part of the first section was to get people familiar with CodeBreaker Advance, but we will start on Chain of Memories next! (crowd goes "YAY!") And the Dissassembler! (members of the crowd take out shotguns) me: Oh sh- *BANG!*
Me: FINE THEN I WON'T GIVE YOU ANY MORE ROMS! (crowd drops weapons)
(pm me WITH YOUR E-MAIL ADDRESS for the C.o.M. rom)

I'll update with the Chain of Memories section within the next week or so

[EvilMan_89]

good luck, i look forward to the review

[MasterNightmare]

i'll give it a try.... might as well, then i can help you all and i'll be smarter...(barely) anyways, i hope i can get this >.<

[JLHack7]

Guahhhhhh!

I have homework, and LOTS of it

so no tutorial update yet

(why did I choose to take honors level classes?)

[MasterNightmare]

Originally Posted by jlhack7

Guahhhhhh!

I have homework, and LOTS of it

so no tutorial update yet

(why did I choose to take honors level classes?)

wow, good luck, and hope ya can get the tutorial updated...